Helen Dunmore was a really very remarkable writer. It still makes me sad that she passed away last year at far too young an age. What else would she have accomplished and how many other wonderful books might she have written? Even now, she is still posthumously winning awards for her books. She was the inaugural winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction, and some of books have been long and shortlisted for a variety of other prestigious awards. Her work has spanned numerous genres and she wrote both for children and adults. I have read a handful of her books and they range in subject from a novel about D.H. Lawrence, stories of WWI and Leningrad under siege, a ghost story and other works of historical fiction and likely other topics I have yet to discover.

I've just finished her 2016 novel Exposure, a story set in Cold War-era London that is ostensibly a spy novel, but is really something far more complex and broader in theme. If you think you don't like spy stories, you might try this one as the espionage aspects are both on the periphery and deep in the heart, but it is all the flesh parts of the story--the daily lives, the challenges and aspirations that make up what we all call "life" that make this story so very rich and complex.

What happens when ordinary people get caught up in extraordinary events? It's like that moment when Tess in Thomas Hardy's novel slides that life-altering letter under Angel Clare's door, but it gets pushed under a rug hidden from the eyes of the man it is meant for. One small act will throw lives into turmoil. So, too, one small act in this story sets off a series of life altering and potentially destructive events. Ordinary lives, honorable people with no ill-intentions snared in a web not of their making and not easily disentangled.

Simon and Lily and their three young children are an average British family leading a quiet middle class life in London. On the surface they are just like their neighbors, putting away money as they earn to buy nicer things for their home. Simon and his son spend time train watching and Lily is a teacher helping make ends meet while running a household. There are some things, however, about them that are perhaps not entirely average, but by no means unusual. Simon has a government job dealing with sensitive materials. While he is subject to the Official Secrets Act he is at a lower level and not privy to heavily classified materials. Lily is British to the core, but not British born. She emigrated from Germany, but she is Jewish. A distinction that not everyone understands or makes. In any other situation these are mere details that make little difference to daily life. But in the wrong circumstances they are details that can be twisted and used against them by both friend and foe.

"It isn't what you know or don't know; it's what you allow yourself to know. I understand this now. I'm on my way home, in a second-class smoker from Victoria. I stare out over the network of roofs, shining with rain. The train wheels click into a canter. I have to change on to the branch line at Ashford, but that's a long way yet."

"It turns out that I knew everything. All the facts were in my head and always had been. I ignored them, because it was easier. I didn't want to make connections. I've begun to understand that I've been half asleep all my life, and now I'm waking up. Or perhaps I am kidding myself, and it's like one of those nightmares where you push your way up through sticky layers of consciousness and think you've woken. You sweat with relief because it's over. You're back in the waking world. And then, out of the corner of your eye, you see them coming."

It takes just one small act. An old friend and a work colleague has taken something home from the office. A file he should not have removed. One he is not even meant to see, but he takes it home. Then in a moment of disorientation, a moment of befuddlement due to a little too much whiskey and too many things in his hands, he stumbles and falls down a set of stairs and everything comes, quite literally collapsing down around him. He has something he should not and so he calls the one man he thinks would be willing to help him get out of this scrape.

Simon knows he should not. Normally he would not. But Giles is someone from his past, so against his better judgement he goes to pick up the file from Giles's rooms, but already the wheels are set in motion. There is someone else in the apartment, but he gets the classified file and puts it into a briefcase and brings it to his home. Things have not come off as easily as Giles thought they would. He is away now in hospital and Simon has hidden the briefcase behind the household wellies to be dealt with as soon as he can. But Lily finds the case as she is cleaning. She sees the file and the initials and the sensitive documents. She knows just enough of Simon's work to know what trouble this can cause. Unknown to Simon she buries the case and documents inside deep in the garden. But it's too late to cover things up. And then comes the knock at the door.

This is one of those stories that you watch partly in fascinated horror and gripping suspense. It is like an accident that you see happening but can do nothing at all to stop. Contrary forces put it all in motion, forces that are meant to right those actions causing the accident, but all those well-meant intentions just dig that hole deeper and deeper. Layer on to it all secrets from the past, thought long and well hidden. This is an exceptional story, very carefully and subtly constructed. It's a story about human folly and all the things we keep so well hidden inside that cause us to stumble when they are meant to be kept locked away. I'm glad I have not read all of Helen Dunmore's work as that means there are still stories left to discover.

This was my January prompt and off to a good start. Although I am ready for something more by Helen Dunmore, and another spy novel, too, I'm turning my attention to February's prompt and will be sharing my potential reads later this week.

Part of the fun of my monthly prompts is getting together a nice pile of books to match the monthly theme, perusing, dipping into a few and then choosing one. This month's prompt was not quite as random as the rest will be. I actually had a book in mind and was ready to dive in, so I set the theme and pulled the book and here I am already in the thick of the story!

I have read a number of books by Helen Dunmore and enjoyed each and every one. She was a marvelous writer and her prose is always engaging and very elegant. It is not for nothing that she was the first winner of the Orange Prize (a book I really need to reread). I had been eyeing her recent Cold War spy novel, Exposure, for some time now. After noting a complete lack of spy fiction last year, it put me in the mood for something sooner rather than later and preferably either from the perspective of a female protagonist or with a strong female lead. So I naturally grabbed the Dunmore. I started reading today and it just clicked, so (as with all my fresh starts this year) I am excited to keep reaching for it.

The story:

"London, November, 1960: the Cold War is at its height. Spy fever fills the newspapers, and the political establishment knows how and where to bury its secrets. When a highly sensitive file goes missing, Simon Callington is accused of passing information to the Soviets, and arrested. His wife, Lily, suspects that his imprisonment is part of a cover-up, and that more powerful men than Simon will do anything to prevent their own downfall. She knows that she too is in danger, and must fight to protect her children. But what she does not realize is that Simon has hidden vital truths about his past, and may be found guilty of another crime that carries with it an even greater penalty."

Lots about it appeal, Lily, the Cold War era and especially a London setting. It has been called "a deceptively simple masterpiece" as well as "the sort of winter read you hanker for . . . the period is so meticulously recreated that you can almost hear the hiss f the gas streetlamps." Perfect! Bring on the weekend. I know how I will be filling my spare reading hours.

So close and yet so far. Do I dare tell you how British secret agent Alec Leamas gets on in John le Carré's famous and game changing classic spy novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold? To come in from the cold means to end your career in espionage and live a happy, boring retirement back home, which is something Leamas wants to do but must first complete one last task. One last horrible and maybe impossible task of taking down the head of the East German's intelligence agency.

After a disastrous defection attempt results in the death of an East German spy/a double agent under Leamas's control, Leamas is told he must stay in the cold for just one more mission. The set up seems fairly straightforward. Leamas is made to appear a rather jaded ex-agent with little money, few prospects and a drinking problem to top off a seemingly miserable existence. The plan is ultimately to frame the head of the East German agency and essentially get him executed.

Alec takes on a job in a small library where he meets a young Jewish woman who falls for him. Maybe it's his worst mistake to begin a relationship with her, but he does. Before the final act that will take him behind the iron curtain for his big finale, he makes her promise not to come looking for him no matter what she suspects might be happening. Famous last words.

After a bust-up lands him in jail he comes to the attention of his East German counterparts and they in turn come to recruit him to spy for them. It's all an illusion, of course, and all going according to plan. What would that make him, a double double-agent? He's brought over to Europe, first the Netherlands and then unexpectedly to East Germany, where things get interesting. As he gets deeper into the heart of Eastern Europe, so too, does the story become more and more complicated. Liz, a Communist member, is brought over to East Germany not understanding what's behind the invitation. She thinks it's all to do with her political persuasion, but in reality she is going to be bait.

It's as complicated as it sounds. More complicated actually. This is a story filled with double crosses and triple crosses and rugs pulled out from under your feet. It's hard to peel back the layers to see just what is really underneath. It's probably not what you think. And it's not who you think either. Alliances and allegiances shift continually. And it's for that reason, or one of them anyway, perhaps that this story was a game changer.

This is a page turner but maybe not in the way you normally think. It is a slender novel and moves slowly and thoughtfully. Very thoughtfully and veers into the realm of philosophies and ideologies. Alec Leamas is jaded and almost everyone is willing to sell their own mother to the other side for the greater good of their own beliefs. What made this book so different than all the rest was the amorality of the characters and the story does take on pretty grim overtones. Maybe that was in part why it took me a while to finish reading this story. None of the classic James Bond moves, somehow a little outrageous (but great fun nonetheless) in comparison. Le Carré portrays the idealistic, righteous and very 'right' West as willing to fight downright dirty and with a complete lack of regard for any kind of high moral standard. So ambiguous are the characters and their motivations it's hard to tell who the good guys are as opposed to the bad ones.

In his introduction le Carré notes that he wrote the book in a "great rush" over about six weeks. It was his first real success, though it was his third book. It's the one that made people stand up and listen and ever after his later books would be compared with it--the bar having been set very high. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was written while he was in East Germany literally watching the Wall go up. No doubt that gave him lots of inspiration and it's obvious he writes from experience.

It took me a while to warm up to the story, but once I turned that last page I gave it all my admiration. It's definitely a novel I will have to revisit and maybe the second time through will be a smoother read. I'd like to read more of le Carré's novels (any favorites?) and will certainly continue my forays into spy novels. I had planned to read this one paired with something by Ian Fleming. Must get the ladies more involved as well.

One for the 'why did I wait so long to read this' category. As a matter of fact reading from my own stacks is meant to find these little gems hiding out in plain sight (the first of what I hope will be many this year). Books I was so excited about buying and owning and (most importantly) reading, but that I never seemed to get around to. Georgina Harding's The Spy Game has been waiting patiently for me since 2009 when I had to have it. I wanted it so badly that I bought it in hardcover. But books don't have expiration dates thankfully and some age just fine and in many cases are even more appreciated by having been read at just the right time. I suspect anytime is the right time for one of Georgina Harding's books.

She's quite an eloquent writer and a very good storyteller. The Spy Game is about spies but at the same time, it really isn't. It's a spy story for readers who don't read spy stories. This is a book about memory, about the stories we tell ourselves, about how we view the world and make our way through it and most importantly, for me anyway, this is a story about identity, about how we see ourselves and those we love. If you are looking for an adrenaline rush of a story, edge-of-your-seat, cloak and dagger stuff, you might want to save this one for another time. It moves along at a stately pace, just right really, for the story it tells. It's introspective and thoughtful. And while the spies might only be perceived through the eyes of two children, it has a most definite sense of atmosphere. Oh, and if you want a neat tidy ending, with everything concrete and pat and dry, well, this might not quite satisfy your desires. Sometimes it isn't the answers at the end, rather it's the journey we take to get there. And sometimes those answers that we find, however incomplete, are enough.

"I shall always associate my other with fog. Once she went up to London in one of the last pea-soupers, I cannot have been more than six then, and came back on the train late. She drove home and came in beneath the bright overhead light in the hall and talked about it, and when she took off her silk headscarf I thought that I saw a remnant of the fog shaken off it, a dull spray that fell away off the gleam of the silk. I saw it like a horror."

"It was there, I told her. The smog. She had brought it home."

"My mother looked in the hall mirror as if to check, smiled a dazzling smile into the glass and shaped up her hair where it had been flattened by the scarf."

"'All gone now'."

It was on just such a foggy day a few years later that Anna's mother dies in a road accident. If only she had known what was coming Anna might have done things differently. She might have done something solitary, given the day the weight it deserved. But she didn't know. Not really. There was something lurking beneath the surface, something unsaid, a falseness of smiles, when her friend's mother tells Anna that her parents won't be back until late and Anna is to stay the night. Is it the lack of any real closure that prompts Anna and her brother Peter to begin imagining a life for their mother? A life and a death or some other ending for her in any case.

It's 1961. Plastered all over the news is the story of a very ordinary couple, the Krogers, who were living lives that were lies. Nothing about them was real. This was a time when spies were real, as real as the Cold War and it wasn't so unusual to read about them in their infinite variations. But the Krogers were something special. So seemingly normal, they would disappear from one place and turn up in another in a very different guise. But they were caught and their secrets revealed, offering all sorts of inspiration for those looking for some other answer to an abrupt and unexpected death.

After the death of Anna and Peter's mother, their father takes them on a vacation to the seaside. And when they return, "something had been erased from the house, and so completely that I did not at first see that it was the presence of my mother", Anna recalls. She was gone and you had to make an effort to remember where she had been.

"They had rubbed her out."

And so it is in this atmosphere of loss and emptiness and grief that Anna and Peter begin reconstructing a life for their mother. What really did they even know about her? What do children ever really know about their parent's lives. They know even less, however. Where she came from, who she really was. Their father met her in Berlin just after the war. They married and returned to England. There is no other family and something almost clandestine about their parent's history. Even their mother's birthplace no longer exists. Once a part of Germany, the city has been reabsorbed back into Russia with every reference that it once had long gone. But how easy it would have been for her to have walked out of their lives and returned to this secret world. Crossing a bridge to the other side, and who would be any the wiser?

The spy game becomes their obsession, particularly Peter's but when things become too intense, Anna backs off. It is only later in life when both have moved on that Anna decides to go looking for real answers. The story moves back and forth in time. It's almost like piecing together a puzzle where the lid of the box has disappeared and you're not sure what the final picture is meant to be. Maybe in the end it doesn't matter.

This is a beautifully told story, just what I would expect from the woman who wrote The Solitude of Thomas Cave, equally as atmospheric and filled with characters grappling with inner demons and trying to find answers and explanations. I think it will soon be time to turn my attention to her Orange Prize longlisted Painter of Silence. This was the perfect way to ease myself into my season of spies.

I finished Georgina Harding's very eloquent (and a very good read, which I will write about later in the week) The Spy Game. It was 'sort of' a spy novel, in a peripheral sort of way. It's the sort of novel that even if you aren't into spy stories, I think you might like. Now to continue on with my season of spies, I thought it was time to get to a few classics of the genre. Actually I had all but decided to pick up a novel about the 1930s Cambridge spy ring, but sifting through a pile, and reading reviews made me decide to change tack just a little. I'm going to try and give both sexes equal opportunity here, so the spy in question in the Harding novel was a woman, now on to the men (no worries, if all goes as planned there will be more women before I'm done).

John Le Carré surely must be 'The' name when it comes to spy novels, and I have yet to read him. When I was looking up his books someone called his character George Smiley an antihero, and the antithesis of the suave James Bond. So, why not read them as a pair? I've read Ian Fleming before but not Le Carré. Both are just under 200 pages, though I am not sure what periods they cover. It will be fun to compare and contrast the two. And if I keep on with pairs, I have two novels that deal with the Cambridge spy ring as well, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

"The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul-erosion produced by high gambling--a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension--becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it."

"James Bond suddenly knew that he was tired. He always knew when his body or mind had had enough and he always acted on the knowledge. This helped him to avoid staleness and the sensual bluntness that breeds mistakes."

Le Carré:

"The American handed Leamas another cup of coffee and said, 'Why don't you go back and sleep? We can ring you if he shows up'."

"Leamas said nothing, just stared through the window of the checkpoint, along the empty street."

"'You can't wait forever, sir. Maybe he'll come some other time. We can have the polizei contact the Agency: you can be back here in twenty minutes'."

I mentioned how my reading was "all over the place" a couple of days ago . . . While I happily have been spending time in contemporary (ca. mid-1980s) Japan, I also have not one but two novels on the go that are spy stories of sorts. One is C.J. Sansom's Dominion, which I think I already mentioned? It is an alternate history--one of those "what if" stories where Britain loses WWII and falls under the rule of Hitler and his cronies. It's not just a historical novel but a spy story. The main character, David Fitzgerald, is a civil servant and gets pulled into acting as a spy for the Resistance. Things are all the more interesting as he is also secretly Jewish. By now all Jews have been "relocated" with the exception of those living in England, though their lives are precarious as Nazis have begun making their lives more difficult.

I have added to the reading line up Georgina Harding's The Spy Game. This might sound a little strange, but there is a method to my madness. I go to the gym most days and the machine I use for my workout has a little tray that is meant for reading material. You can prop your book or (more likely) magazine (actually an ipad or ereader works well, too) on the tray and have your hands free to hold on to the machine. As much as I love the books I am reading, none are quite right for the machine. I had to hold the book flat in some way but also hold on and it made for a frustrating work out. Nothing like multi-tasking at the gym, but if it results in a half hour or so extra reading time, multi-task I am happy to do. But I had to find just the right book. Normally I base my reading choices on mood and desire for a particular story, but this time around I had to find a book that would fit on the tray and lay open without help for me and so, yes, Georgina Harding works quite well. I had every intention to just leave the book in my locker and read it for the daily workout, but I find myself so immersed that I end up bringing it home with me so I can dip into it whenever I please. The story is about two young siblings whose mother dies in a car crash. It's the early 1960s and so the war is still on their peripheral memories. Their mother was German-born and with the Cold War atmosphere so pervasive they begin imagining that she was a spy and didn't really die in an accident. It's hugely absorbing.

When I realized that I seem to have the spy theme running through my reading at the moment, I thought maybe it was time for another season of spies. A few years back I kicked off my reading year with a few spy stories. Since this seems to be the path I'm on at the moment, why not add a few more books to the mix (well, when I finish these two anyway). And a new list of books is in order, I think, since I have accumulated a new stack to choose from. Some of these might not be straightforward spy novels, but they all look good:

The Spy's Wife by Reginald Hill -- "Molly Keatley is content with her comfortable life in a London suburb. But that changes one morning when her husband rushes home, grabs a briefcase, mutters a hasty apology and disappears. Minutes later, two men arrive with news that her husband is a Soviet spy, and that the sleepy joys of her marriage have acted as a cover for public and personal betrayal. Her husband, it seems, has spent years using her for his own purposes, and now the British intelligence service wants to use her for theirs. But the shock of Sam's betrayal has woken Molly out of her complacent dream, and she is no longer willing to be anybody's pawn."

The Cambridge Theorem by Tony Cape -- "When Simon Bowles commits suicide, no one is surprised. A graduate student in mathematics at Cambridge University, Bowles had a long, well-documented history of depression. But as Detective Sergeant Derek Smailes soon discovers, he also had a passion for investigating historical mysteries and an extraordinary knack for solving them. His most recent project: uncovering the identity of the fabled fifth man in the notorious Cambridge spy-ring of the 1930s. Could Bowles possibly have solved that mystery? And could his solution, his theorem, have brought about his death?"

A Coffin for Dimitrios by Eric Ambler -- "A chance encounter with a Turkish colonel with a penchant for British crime novels leads mystery writer Charles Latimer into a world of sinister political and criminal maneuvers throughout the Balkans in the years between the world wars. Hoping that the career of the notorious Dimitrios, whose body has been identified in an Istanbul morgue, will inspire a plot for his next novel, Latimer soon finds himself caught up in a shadowy web of assassination, espionage, drugs, and treachery."

The Polish Officer by Alan Furst -- "Brilliantly imagined, vividly drawn, rich with incident and detail . . . The Polish Officer portrays ordinary men and women caught out on the sharp edge of military intelligence operations in wartime: the partisans, saboteurs, resistance fighters and idealistic volunteers risking their lives in causes that seem lost".

The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming -- "Recruited in the 1930s, the members of the Cambridge spy ring were the most notorious Soviet spies in history. But what if there were a sixth member of the ring whose identity was never revealed?"

Zoo Station by David Downing -- "A suspenseful tale of an ordinary man living in a dangerous place during a dangerous time who finds within himself the strength to do heroic acts."

Casino Royale by Ian Fleming -- "In the novel that introduced James Bond to the world, Ian Fleming’s agent 007 is dispatched to a French casino in Royale-les-Eaux. His mission? Bankrupt a ruthless Russian agent who’s been on a bad luck streak at the baccarat table."

Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd -- "A provocative exploration of the line between consciousness and reality is nested within a tense, rollercoaster plotline following as a young English actor ensnared in a bewildering scandal with an enigmatic woman in early twentieth-century Vienna. Sophisticated, page-turning, and unforgettable, Boyd’s Waiting for Sunrise is a triumph of literary fiction from one of the most powerful, thought-provoking writers working today."

The Spy Who Loved by Clare Mulley - "Not only was Christine Granville Britain’s first woman agent in World War II but carried out some of the most daring missions ever conceived. Her biographer Clare Mulley has provided a vivid account of her activities yet maintains a balanced assessment of the results. Careful research has created sustained tension, vitality and immediacy which are truly page-turning."

Red Joan by Jennie Rooney -- "Inspired by the true story of Melita Norwood, an eighty-seven-year old woman who was unmasked as the KGB's longest serving British spy in 1999, Red Joan is a well-researched and briskly paced historical novel that questions the black-and-white morality of wartime society. Brilliantly structured and psychologically acute, this compelling novel provides no easy answers, instead offering a kaleidoscope of conflicting choices and questionable motives. And once the authorities close in, is there ever such a thing as atonement and forgiveness?"

A Gathering of Saints by Christopher Hyde -- "Nazi planes are bombing London in late 1940, and a serial killer is on the loose. The bodies turn up in the newly bombed areas. How does the murderer know where to place his victims? Scotland Yard's Detective Inspector Morris Black is ordered to find out. He meets communists Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess and writers C.P. Snow and Ian Fleming and is told about the deep secret of Ultra. Meanwhile, he is hunted by a German spy."

Decision at Delphi by Helen MacInnes -- "Just another routine overseas assignment. That's what successful young New York architect Ken Strang thought when a national travel magazine sent him to Europe to sketch Greek ruins. What he did not know, until it was too late, was that from the moment he boarded the ship, he had become the pawn in a murderous game of international intrigue." Titan Books has reissued most of Helen MacInnes's very extensive backlist--so there are lots of stories to choose from!

Touchstone by Laurie King -- "New York Times bestselling author Laurie R. King takes us to a remote cottage in Cornwall in this gripping tale of intrigue, terrorism, and explosive passions that begins with a visit to a recluse code-named . . ."

I'm not sure where my reading will take me, which of these books will be my next read, but I am sure wherever I end up it will be an adventure.

How's this for a bit of metafiction. Captain Jack Absolute, creation
of 18th century playwright Richard Sheridan, pulled from the pages of a
play called The Rivals and plunked into the pages of a
historical novel. Then, in the pages of the novel he becomes the
subject of a fictional Richard Sheridan who decides to write a play
about his swashbuckling and enviable adventures. And within the same story
plays himself on stage. It's all very larger than life and if you have
an opportunity to "meet" Captain Absolute you'll realize just how
fitting and to character all this is!

Author C.C. Humphreys knows well of which he writes as he has himself
played Jack Absolute on stage. As a matter of fact he began his career
as an actor and playwright and unsurprisingly such a vivid and colorful
character as Jack Absolute (and isn't that a marvelous invention of a
name?) became his inspiration and prompted him to create a story around
the fictional character. Humphreys quite literally brought Jack
Absolute to life after living and breathing the character himself. I like the story behind the story almost as much as the story itself.

And I do love a good adventure story, and even more so one that can be
described as swashbuckling. Dashing heroes, especially those like Jack
who have wit, humor and keen intelligence are rather on the agreeable
side, don't you think? Let's see, I can add him to the list. There's Captain Alatriste, Beauvallet,
and my all time favorite Horatio Hornblower (an officer and a
gentleman). Jack, a well-seasoned soldier, has been out of the game as
such for a number of years. He gave up his commission to travel to
India and is set to return after conducting business in London when he's
asked to take on the task of spy. He'd rather not but falls into it all by accident.

This story has another twist
(there are a number of twists in this story as you might imagine). It's
1775 and the Revolutionary War is being fought on the other side of the
Atlantic. Jack is a Redcoat, though an enlightened British soldier.
His first allegiance is to the Crown but he's not without a few
sympathies for the Rebels (he gets it from his mother's side who had a streak of the rebellious in her Irish blood). As a younger man he spent many years in Canada and the Hudson Valley among the Iroquois so is well versed in the ways of frontier life.

But let me backtrack just a moment here. Jack would prefer to steer well clear of the War for American Independence. He kindly refuses the offer to be reappointed to his former regiment. Aside from his desire to return to India where he is trying to recoup his fortune he has recently acquired estate in the West Indies that needs attending to. Only a day shy of his departure, however, he gets dragged into a duel and barely misses being caught. Duels being illegal and all but frowned upon it's a friendly bit of blackmail by General John Burgoyne that finally convinces Jack that a journey to the American Colonies might be a good idea after all. It doesn't hurt that aboard the same ship will be the beautiful Miss Louisa Reardon returning to her family in New York, Jack having a fondness for Colonial women.

Jack's expertise and experience is needed not just in leading troops but in his abilities as a spy and his knowledge of the Six Nations of the Iroquois who are, Jack is quick to point out, His Majesty's Native Allies (not Subjects). If the war is to be won, it can only be done with their help, and they will need convincing. Jack considers the Iroquois his brothers and is known to them as Daganoweda. On more than one occasion, as a matter of fact, his life has been saved by Até who travels with him as friend and companion. Midway through the story Jack reflects on the many and varied ways in which his enemies have tried to kill him but have oft been routed by a very calm, always cerebral, Shakespeare-quoting Até.

Jack Absolute is a wholly entertaining romp through the Revolutionary War, at least through the pivotal and bloody Battle of Saratoga. There's a nice balance between swashbuckling adventure (including duels, battles, swordplay, quick escapes, a nasty snake bite and an amorous liaison or two) and historical spy story (complete with stolen missives and lost code breakers, double agents and a secret society of Illuminati with their own hidden agenda) with an entirely different perspective on the War.

Many thanks to Liz at Sourcebooks for sending this one my way. There are two more books featuring Jack Absolute. The Blooding of Jack Absolute, which is a prequel and will be published in the US in November, and Absolute Honour which also takes place before the Revolutionary War.

Do you ever have bookish cravings? I have them all the time. Maybe I should explain what I mean by cravings. Not so much a desire to acquire new books (though I have those sorts of cravings all the time), but a desire to read a particular type of story. It seems there are search engines out there where you can pop in a title and they'll tell you what you should read next . . . a readalike?

This is what I have in mind. A story of suspense. Female protagonist. Setting would be prewar Europe. The heroine finds herself mixed up in something of that's dangerous and a little beyond her experience, but she's not one to back down from a challenge. Maybe something a little political, definitely along the lines of a spy story. Think 1930s. Glamour. A story that you could imagine translating onto the silver screen and of course filmed in B&W.

Now, if I hadn't already read Ethel Lina White's The Lady Vanishes, that would be just the ticket. Or even The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars (though Lady Diana Wynham's secretary Gerard has all the "fun") would do quite nicely. But something new to me is preferable. Something written in the 30s would be a first choice, but maybe there is a more contemporary novel written about the era that would satisfy my desire. Why does nothing come to mind?

I know there are loads of spy novels out there and I've even got a list or two, but the books tend to be heavy with male protagonists. I seem to return to this genre quite often, don't I? Maybe I should go back to Helen MacInnes or "settle" for a John Buchan?

Here's my other scenario. Yes, I've got two. Last year I read a book called Losing Nicola by Susan Moody. It was a good novel, not perfect, but I liked the premise. A coming of age story, a seaside setting of postwar England, another story of suspense and murder (though not espionage this time around). I hate to think I like reading the same story over and over, but I guess I sort of do--at least occasionally. When you have a good experience you want to repeat it, right? Maybe not one book after another of the same sort, but enough time has passed that the stories come back to mind and I've got a bookish whim to read something along those same lines.

Now it's not as though I don't have plenty of satisfying reads on the go right now or anything. I do. I'm very much enjoying a number of books at the moment. And I have four books that I am trying very hard to finish before I go on vacation (which is two weeks from today--quickly approaching--by the way), but when I have these whims, there is nothing for it but to give in to them.

Yes, this is what I do at the gym when I am using weights and can't have a book in hand. I start thinking about other books. Gym time comes after work, and it is my "down time", time to think about what I want to do in my leisure moments. It's a given that these moments turn to books, right? I know I should break myself of the habit of thinking about other books when I am in the middle of something good (it almost feels a little bit disloyal). I should learn to focus more. Sigh.

But I'm still happy to take any recommendations you have to offer!

By the way, I am very nearly already in vacation mode. I still have a couple of books that I'd like to write about, but I (as you see) had other distractions tonight. Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you about a book I recently finished (and liked very much) or maybe I'll save them for the weekend when I have more time to spend writing the posts. Posting in general may be a little sporadic (and probably like tonight a little uninspired), but it seems my mind is in about twenty places at once right now (and not enough time to devote to any one thing like I'd like to). Assure me you know how that goes!

Now that I've read Maurice Dekobra's 1927 bestseller, The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars (La Madone des Sleepings), I guess I need to pick up an Alan Furst novel, since I've read his characters are often seen reading the novel on their own journeys. I very much enjoyed the story and had images of a dashing French secretary and an elegant and beautiful Lady of the British Peerage running through my mind à la vintage B&W classic movies, and if this story has not been filmed it surely should be.

I was thinking as I was reading that it was a charming period piece, but really it is probably far more authentic in setting and atmosphere than other books that are out there these days. I think it relies more on intellectual motivations to move the story along than on edge of your seat thrills, though there are a few of those along the way as well. Although this is a story of political intrigue, it's not a traditional spy story per se. There are the requisite villainous Russians, a number of oil wells, several long train journeys, secret agents, double crosses, at least one love story, and fortunes gained and lost. All in all great fun.

Lady Diana Wynham, daughter of a Scottish Duke, leads a decadent sort of lifestyle. She's intrigued by the science of the subconscious, has a gaggle of admirers, and is known to create a stir by her unconventional behavior. She gets a kick out of making headlines by her audaciousness. Unfortunately she's practically broke. Her story is told by her French secretary, who also happens to be a Prince, Prince Séliman. Gerard Dextrier married into this royal title in America, but when he was caught in a seemingly compromising position with his stepdaughter, he left New York and ended up in London.

Not so much down and out as depressed by his failed marriage and with fond memories of his wife's tender kisses never far from his thoughts, Gerard agrees to become Lady Diana's personal secretary. He doesn't need the money, but must have something to take his mind off his personal affairs, and who better but the lovely Lady Diana whose own life and affairs always seem to need sorting out. What mostly needs sorting out are her financial affairs, which soon become entangled with a Russian diplomat who agrees to help her gain access to oil wells she owned in the Soviet Republic of Georgia--before the Revolution that is. It's all very tricky trying to obtain what is now held by the Soviet people to return to a Western capitalist--a meeting and clashing of ideologies. In exchange for the oil wells, Lady Diana must agree to certain romantic liaisons. It all seems easy enough, and might have been pulled off without a hitch had it not been for one jealous Russian woman with ties to the deadly cheka.

The story is quite whirlwind and moves along at a nice pace once the offers are made and accepted. Written a decade after the Russian Revolution, Dekobra offers and interesting look inside the Soviet Union when it was all still fairly fresh in the collective memory. Although Lady Diana is the Madonna of the Sleeping Cars, it's Gerard who takes most of the risks and finds himself locked in a battle of wills that's very life or death, but Lady Diana pays the emotional price by story's end.

This was an entertaining yet surprisingly thoughtful story. Dekobra wrote quite a few books, his career spanning 40 years, though I'm not sure how many were ever translated into English. His later works were 'whodunits'. Although I read the original 1927 edition of the book, Melville House is reissuing The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars next month. They are publishing the same translation that I read, which was by Neal Wainwright, and it passed my own test. I forgot as I was reading that it was even a translation to begin with. I may have to see what else is being released in the Neversink Library (more overlooked and underappreciated books). I'm not sure what thriller/spy story I'll pick up next, but I plan on continuing my (very slow) survey of the genre.

I thought I would skip my lost in the stacks post today as it's been a hectic week and I didn't have a chance to do much browsing in the stacks. However yesterday I brought home a very interesting book that I had requested via interlibrary loan and was thinking it would be a perfect lost in the stacks book, pity it wasn't one my library owned. But I like to be flexible, so today I have a 'guest' lost in the stacks book, all the way from Colorado. Originally published in 1927, it's difficult to gage how often it has been circulating of late, but the due date slip inside the book (and you can't really go by those since they are often no longer used--my library doesn't use them anymore as a matter of fact) shows a last check out of March 27, 1961!

I'm sorry to say I can't lay claim on having "found" this book, as I came across it via Melville House Books, where I was browsing in their forthcoming titles section. I read the description and thought, perfect, I need to read this. Had I looked closer I would have found it is due to be published this month (according to the Melville site--Amazon lists it, perhaps erroneously, as being due out in July), but at first glance it looked months away from being available and you might already have noticed if you stop by regularly that I am not especially patient when it comes to books I want to read.

So, what was it about Maurice Dekobra's The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars (La Madone des Sleepings) that made me look twice, and then go directly to my library's ILL request form and ask for a copy? First it was this little eye catcher:

"One of the biggest bestsellers of all time, and one of the first and most influential spy novels of the twentieth century, is back in print for the first time since 1948."

Although I've not been spending as much time lately with my thrillers and spy novels (and I have a lovely pile of them), I love to read them, and 'biggest bestseller' and 'influential' are high words of praise indeed. A teaser from the description hooked me further.

"It’s the story of two tremendously charming characters who embark on a glamorous adventure on the Orient Express—and find themselves on a thrilling ride across Europe and into the just-barely unveiled territories of psychoanalysis and revolutionary socialism."

Alan Furst is an author I very, very much want to read particularly so now as Melville House notes that in his novels there is often a character traveling by train who happen to be reading just this book. I love books that talk about other books (and what was agent 007 reading in From Russia With Love? Am thinking it was a novel by Eric Ambler, but I could be remembering incorrectly). Anyway, I love the sound of this book, and it sounds like a classic of the genre that I hadn't come across.

By the way Dekobra is French, the book was translated by Neal Wainwright. I was hoping to find a review of it from when it was first published in the US, but so far I've not been able to find anything. Something of a curiosity--Dekobra's real name was Maurice Tessier. His pen name came (so the story goes on the wikipedia) that he saw a snake charmer in North Africa with two cobras and his name is a spin off from his experience--"deux cobras" became Dekobra. Makes for a good story in any case. I'd never heard of the term "dekobrisme", which is coined from his name, to describe his writing style which uses journalistic features.

He was apparently quite a popular author in France between the two world wars and his many books were published in quite a few other languages, but like so many authors he has been rather forgotten with the passage of time. Thanks to Melville House for bringing him to my attention and back into print. I think I must now take a closer look at their Neversink Library and perhaps discover some other forgotten gems!

Now I'll leave you with a description of one of those charming and glamorous characters. This is Lady Diana Wynham.

"Like lightning that blonde hair and that pure and classic face, only slightly ravaged by all-night revels at the Jardin de Ma Soeur or at the Ambassadors, appeared from behind the paper screen...But what is the use of describing Lady Diana's beauty? Anyone can look at her for the price of a copy of the Tatler or the Bystander. Weekly magazines all over the world never fail to include a picture of Lady Diana Wynham playing golf, cuddling a baby bull, driving a Rolls-Royce, shooting grouse on the Scotch moors of climbing the slopes above Monte Carlo in a white sweater."